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Post by madviper101 on Feb 18, 2012 1:06:09 GMT 1
BTTF- Not that i know a lot about building pc's as this is my first and only build but joking aside I would definately check to see if your case can fit that air cooler. I Have a HAF X case and the watercooler condenser unit adds as an additional exhaust fan. This is my first build and John(JerseyJA) reccomended the corsair watercooled systems, I think he has mainly built on the H60's. I have not overclocked yet but temperatures at the moment are low(think settings are on medium or low). The system comes sealed so no need for topping up or worrying about connectors. I was a bit worried initially about a leak, plus wobbly is an air cooled fan(even with dog hairs).To be honest now I wish my graphics card was watercooled too.
8 gb ram does appaer to help load times. Although not a necessity the price diffrence is so small its a no brainer. I went from 2 x 2 gb corsair xms to 2 x 4gb cosair vengence. Your welcome to the xms sticks if you want as I have no use for them.
Not read much about the Ivy bridge, but could definately be worth waiting for.
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ghstrdr060
Great Contributor
No peace in our time. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends."
Posts: 154
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Post by ghstrdr060 on Feb 21, 2012 20:08:32 GMT 1
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
And the Hard Drive Click of death arrived last night.
Didn't take long to diagnose as I was hoping it was my second hard drive I use for "everything else" with the exception OS, program files, and personal documents. Of course, the Seagate Spinpoint with all these important files is the "clicker". Fortunately, I learned long ago to partition the hard dirves into an OS, program files, personal files, downloads, media, and temp partitions. Then there is the back-up drive first time I'm really glad I built the back-up server.
So today I'll have to leave work early, pick-up a new drive, and start from scratch. I'll look at this like its a good thing; fresh OS, fresh program reload hopefully equals faster computer.
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Post by tazimafied on Mar 3, 2012 20:45:41 GMT 1
Reloading all that software on to a new drive definatly makes a difference. You will notice faster speeds. I would take it easy on the partitioning this time though. Each partition will take up extra space on your hard drive on its own without hving anything in it and it tends to make hard drives work harder than they need to. It is nice to have everything so organized but it can lead to premature failure of the servo sending the arm back and forth at high rates of speed. This will also create more heat in the drive as well helping the deformation of the plastic bushings. I am guessing this is where the click is coming from. A better idea for staying organized would be to actually buy several small HD's. This way each HD will actually work less, create less heat and last longer. This also makes for a cooler environment in your computer case. You could also get an external to take your favorites with you where ever you go.
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Post by backtothefight64 on May 3, 2012 13:26:00 GMT 1
Finally ordered my upgrade to go with the gtx570 I bought last year.
I5 3570k
Asus P8Z77 v lx
Corsair Vengeance 8gb 1600Mhz ram
I've got to get a cooler for overclocking, either a Corsair A70 or might stretch to a H60 water cooled, a bit more googling required.
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Post by pershainovitsh on May 3, 2012 14:31:48 GMT 1
I might be considering to think of building a new computer. My rig hasn't been upgraded once in the past five years so it's possible I'd have to upgrade every part, so in practice it would be a completely new computer. So I could save the old one.
But I'm on a tight budget and don't really know much of today's computer parts so I guess you could give it a hand. First of all, I'd need to upgrade my OS from XP to Windows 7. But what would you suggest as a graphics card etc? I don't think I'd need the latest Nvidia GTX, but which one would be a good compromise of price and power? Right now I have a Nvidia GEforce 9800GT.
And what about processors? I have two AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ 's. The computer is running at 3.11 GHz.
My sound card is a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi.
M2N Motherboard by Asus.
Logitech G15 gaming keyboard (the newer version with red display) and a Logitech G9x gaming mouse. They are not in a need for upgrading.
...If I didn't put something here is probably because I either forgot or don't know how to find which model is that part. With the new parts I'm hoping to at least be able to play new games with medium-to high settings. At best I wouldn't have to upgrade in years. So, which parts would be reasonably priced while still offering good performance? It doesn't matter if you know only about one computer part. And it's no guarantee I'm buying a new computer, just checking the situation right now and seeing how much would it cost.
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Post by wobblyone on May 3, 2012 19:56:48 GMT 1
BTTF, I would go for the liquid cooling. It is no more efficient than (top) air coolers, but you will have loads more space in your case. Just look at my pic a few pages back. No room left for a future second graphics card  Al, my rig consists of Asus P8P67 Mobo Intel i5 2500K GTX 560Ti 8 GB Ram All is now last year's tech (so prices are dropping), but it runs BF3, ArmA2, FSX and Skyrim on high to max settings comfortably. |
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Post by pershainovitsh on May 3, 2012 21:06:45 GMT 1
All that would be 720,90€. With a Windows 7 Home Premium 876,90€. I have almost 500 GB of hard drive space. (about 120 GB free space, although I could add more by removing unnecessary stuff) But I guess I should buy a bigger hard drive while I'm at it. One terabyte is more than I could possibly ever need. (once again I'm getting the feeling that someone is reading these forums 10 years in the future and they're laughing at me while using their 1 petabyte hard drive to store the entire universe in it  ) Unless of course games start getting really big like Max Payne 3, which is 35 GB. Just imagine what could you do with 1 petabyte of hard drive space? 1 PB=1000 TB=1000 000 GB. I guess you could save every song in CD quality, every movie in HD 3D or whatever's hip at that point. And if the human race hasn't destroeyd itself in the next 50 years, 1 yottabyte hard drives could be come reality. That's a million times million TERABYTES. 1000 000 000 000 TB. I don't know what would you eve do with that much space. I guess you could start living it. ;D At that point games must be so realistic you can't distinguish reality from the game. And the whole world, replicated virtually could be stored in that one YB. (don't take my word for it) |
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Post by madviper101 on May 3, 2012 22:35:50 GMT 1
Al where are you looking at getting windows 7. You can get the OEM builders version for ~£60. When your quoting 720 Euros is that for wobblys or BTTF's system. I would say if your looking for a reasonably priced system something like Wobblys spec would be a good benchmark. I think prices may start to tumble soon on the 500 range nvidea graphics cards with the supposably fantastic new GTX690. Im a little surprised the i5 sandybridge processor hasnt dropped a little more with the ivybridge system now out that BTTF is looking at, as prices are even on a budget the 3570 has currently got to be the way to go.
I found custom pc magazine really useful for investigating pc parts. They also reccomend systems for budget/mid/high performance systems.
With regard to purchasing I recently got 8gb corsair vengence from dabs. This was found to be faulty with Spartans guidance. dabs actually arranged for it to be collected from my house and I had a replacement within a week. Very impressive service as historically I have had issues with them.
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Post by tazimafied on May 4, 2012 6:05:01 GMT 1
Hey Al,
I did some searching and found you a good start. I don't know if these models are available to you but this should get you close.
AMD FX-6200 Zambezi 3.8GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor FD6200FRGUBOX
ASUS M5A99X EVO ATX
ASUS ENGTX550 TI DC TOP/DI/1GD5
Right now these items together are listed at about 460 USD. That would be around 285 GBP. Add some memory (I would recomend 4G or more), a PSU and Win 7 with your current HDD and you are probably looking at less than 500 GBP for your upgrade/new system. And, if you need more video power in the near future you can always add a another video card (must be the same exact card) and run them in SLI.
[edit]
If you give me some links to websites that you order from I would be able to help more. Especially with finding compatable memory for your new MB and a proper PSU.
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Post by pershainovitsh on May 4, 2012 7:42:17 GMT 1
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Post by tazimafied on May 4, 2012 13:17:46 GMT 1
I found that processor on Newegg. It is a 6 core and I believe the I5 is only 2 or 4. Amd processors seem to be much less for better processors but I am going to have to research that unless someone can clue is in as I have onlu used intel chips for my builds.
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mcguirk2
Excellent Contributor
Posts: 307
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Post by mcguirk2 on May 4, 2012 15:06:35 GMT 1
Al, If your starting your build from scratch, the most important decision will be your choice of processor. Few of us can afford to buy the latest and fastest so we need to find that compromise between performance and price. This graph: community.futuremark.com/hardware/cpu might help you sort it out. |
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Post by madviper101 on May 4, 2012 19:21:43 GMT 1
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Post by pershainovitsh on May 4, 2012 20:15:19 GMT 1
Al, I am not sure where you can get it from but above is the amazon uk link. thought you may be able to get vista very reasonably but it doesnt appear so unfortunately. I'd rather avoid Vista and go straight to Windows 7. As for budget, at the maximum I'd pay 1000€, but I'd rather not spend that much. 700-900€ would be preferable for the whole set. I'm still unsure if I'm just going to upgrade this rig or build and entirely new computer. Of course it would be cheaper to just upgrade, and I don't think I have a need to replace my monitor (Chimei CMV223D, no 3D capabilities that I'd be aware of even if the name suggests so), keyboard or mouse. A surround headset would be neat, although my current (stereo) headset isn't that bad. It works, the sound quality is decent and although it isn't surround I can still play games and know where the enemies are by listening to footsteps/gunshots. I do have a good pair of headphones (Prodipe pro 550) but unfortunately they don't come with a microphone. (but they are much, much more comfortable) A couple of times I've tried putting both the headset and the headphones on my head so I would get the good sound quality from the Prodipe and the microphone from the Sandberg, but it doesn't really work. I can't see much because the microphone of the Sandberg is in the middle of my field of view. Plus it's a bit annoying having two headphones on my head, ones on my ears and ones on my forehead+back of my head. Not to mention how stupid I must look. ;D Actually, while writing this I came up with an idea: If I just let the headset hang on my neck with the microphone pretty close to my mouth and the headphones on my ears, would that work? But I'm already seeing a problem: the headphones reduce background noise and generally every sound outside the phones so much that I wouldn't hear myself speaking very well, causing me to shout on the microphone. I'll have to experiment. The headphones are, as I said, much more comfortable to wear, plus they have a better sound quality. So I'd rather use them to provide the audio. So, while we're at it, what do you guys use as a headset? Or do you use speakers and a separate microphone? What would be a reasonably priced headset, while still being good? Do you think my microphone (of the headset) is capturing a clear voice? It's the only one I've ever used, so if you've heard me talking, it has been through that microphone. Of course you can't compare the voice you hear through Teamspeak with the voice I speak with in everyday life as I haven't met anyone from the clan in person, but is my voice clear? |
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Post by madviper101 on May 4, 2012 23:54:19 GMT 1
Al,
Ive got a Sennheiser PC350 headset. It is good but doesnt have much base. Also it is quite pricey.
You do sound clear to me on your current headset
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) Unless of course games start getting really big like Max Payne 3, which is 35 GB.
